RANTI BAM

Bam’s practice—celebrated in solo shows at James Cohan in New York and Andréhn-Schiptjenko in Paris—melds colour, texture, and form with a searching exploration of ancestry and the feminine, inviting viewers to contemplate the ways we are shaped by environment and experience.

Early Years

Born in Lagos and raised in London, Bam’s multicultural upbringing and early interest in making drew from both her African roots and British upbringing. Inspired by her mother’s crafts and her own childhood affinity for clay, she pursued a BA in Design but found true expression in ceramics after a revelatory visit to the Africa Remix exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery in 2005. Bam later earned an MA from The Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design, focusing her thesis on ‘How can art and design help man understand his inseparability from his environment?’—a theme that continues to resonate throughout her work. Further technical and creative development came through the renowned City Lit ceramics diploma.

Ranti Bam Artworks

Bam’s ceramic practice is rooted in process and intimacy, with each piece emerging through a collaboration between artist and material. Her vessels—ranging from painterly, slab-built forms to the abstract, bodily Ifa sculptures—embody the physical and spiritual stories of the places and people that inspire her, drawing on Yoruba heritage, Eastern philosophy, everyday encounters, and her experiences across continents. She frequently works with unglazed surfaces, firing clay to the point of tension so it tears, puckers, and splits, accentuating fragility and resilience. Colour plays a central role, influenced by Nigerian textiles, natural landscapes, and Renaissance painting palettes.

Major Series and Themes

Her celebrated Ifas series explores the vessel as both body and portal, referencing the Yoruba concept of “Ifa” (divination/“to pull close”), with sculptures resting on akpoti (stools integral to communal life and spiritual sustenance) The interplay of interior and exterior—sometimes exposed through deliberate punctures—highlights ideas of containment, openness, and the revelation of internal worlds. Bam’s work often engages language, etymology, and metaphor, revealing layers of meaning that unsettle easy boundaries between figuration and abstraction, lightness and darkness, the individual and the collective.

Select Public Commissions

In 2023, Bam was commissioned to create Ifas for the Liverpool Biennial in the UK. Her works have also been acquired for prominent institutional collections, including the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham through the Contemporary Arts Society Griffin Award for her ceramic work Iwa (2025).

Select Awards and Accolades

Bam’s work is held in the public collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Brooklyn Museum (New York), High Museum (Atlanta), Chazen Museum of Art (Wisconsin), de Young Museum (San Francisco), Princeton University Art Museum (New Jersey), RISD Museum (Rhode Island), Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna), Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), and Contemporary Art Society (London), among others.

Exhibitions

Ranti Bam has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important institutions. Below is a selection of important exhibitions.

Solo Exhibitions

• Anima, James Cohan, New York (2024)
• How do we hold our stories?, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris (2024)
• Common Ground, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Bucharest (2022)

Group Exhibitions

• Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art, Chazen Museum of Art, Wisconsin (2023)
• Hard/Soft: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (2023)
• Liverpool Biennial, St Nicholas Church Gardens, Liverpool (2023)
• Collect Exhibition, London (2017–2020)

In 2025, Bam will join the Black Rock Senegal artist residency.

More Reading

Bam’s work and ideas have been discussed in well regarded publications, including by Stephanie Bailey in Ocula Magazine.

Ranti Bam FAQs

Ocula | 2025